Whats lighter - 14" steel vs 14" alloy?

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Whats lighter - 14" steel vs 14" alloy?

u33db

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Hi,

My 1.2 Ka/500 has 16" wheels as standard but i am thinking of going down a couple sizes due to the weight savings and therefore mpg benefit.

(I also have a set of 14" steels i bought and a wheel/tyre combo is coming in at about 12.5 kgs in those versus about 2kgs more per corner for my 16 inchers so quite a saving to be had!)

Question though...

What is lighter - a 14" x 5.5" steel wheel or a 14" x 6 alloy wheel.

I would have expected the alloy to be a bit lighter but i am aware some steels are very light due to needing less material to construct.

Is there much if any difference between alloy and steel at 14"?
 
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Thank you - I'm going down on tyre width too so 195/45/16 to 175/65/14

I actually did a test fit of one of the wheels tonight and i think it looks ok...seems to make the car appear a bit lower too. I might get the mk1 doblo centre caps just to cover the hub area and redo them in silver as well to tart them up. They'll be going on with 15 or 20mm spacers to to pump it out.

Here is the difference between the 16s and 14s if anyones interested;



I do like the look of the 16s but they make the car feel a bit like a slug accelerating, and its not the fastest of cars to begin with either!

Ideally i'd get lightweight alloys but doubt they'd be much lighter than the steelies, especially as lightweight wheels (e.g. TD pro races) don't seem to go below 14" anyway
 
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I find in interesting in how the industry over the years has migrated towards larger diameter, fatter and lower profile tyres. I think totally driven by customer wish/preference for looks and placebo gains rather than any real grip and handling advantages for normal road cars.

We have had several people here on the forum over the years changing to smaller wheels (all dimensions) saying they the ride is better, handling good or better, accelleration better, noise better. Won't always be the case but you only have to look at what rally cars and track cars do with their tyre choices to realise that for any given tyre there are optimum sizes, pressures, treads, etc. all which determine the contact area AND patch loading (PSI) with the road/off road surface.

As we get older on big advantage of smaller wheels is us older bods can actually lift them without knackering ourselves :)
 
If you fit wheels with even a 5% circumference difference you'll (a) mess up the speedo and (b) find its either overgeared and thirsty or under-geared and annoying to drive.

If you go from 16" to 14" rims you'll need to go up in tyre aspect ratio. That gives a better ride and far more capable on today's rough roads, but weight saved on the wheel is added to the tyre.

I put pepper pot steels on the 100HP. They are as near as possible the same diameter width and offset as the original alloys. Weight is slightly less than the alloys but with the mass of cast iron brakes and suspension you'll never notice.
 
Typically an alloy rim would have lower weight than steel. However, it depends on the type / quality of the material. Same as alloy type A can have a different weight than type B.

In your example you also change type width (and naturally height) with gives a different character overall. In my experience (MINI and BMW) that difference in ride vs comfort is more noticeable than different in weight.

Difference in ratio is immaterial:
 
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What specific wheels and tires are those?
 
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